Letter to the editor re Walker Corporation’s Online Information Session about the Toondah PDA

Dear Editor R2030 and all concerned with the conservation of endangered species and inappropriate developments in the Toondah Harbour PDA.

Some of you have now had an opportunity to read and process the latest Walker Corporation Strategy of using a range of paid technical people in various fields.

You may initially have assumed it would be an interactive group of sessions on koalas, shorebirds, fisheries and coastal practices etc designed to find the best way forward.  It is my conclusion is that each of these academics and technical “experts” has been paid by Walker Corporation to deliver their online narrative. The process is not designed for debate or change.  Let’s hope I am wrong but I think it highly unlikely that a wealthy developer would employ such people simply to have a debate. 

I have also reviewed a few of the videos, and my comments are:

Fisheries

The video on Fisheries, delivered by Daryl McPhee from Bond University, discusses his university life working in fisheries and he is quite blunt about his aim to show how a marina can improve the habitat. He also says that such a project can enhance recreational fishing from the land because it can provide rocks and platforms for fishing.  There is absolutely no mention of the effects of dredging a nursery region in an area known to have acid sulphate soils, on seagrass beds and marine life. But in fairness to Daryl he stated that he is only concerned with potential positive aspects.

Koalas

Adrian Caneris was employed for 7 years by Redland City Council to survey the koalas living in different areas. He has used scat findings and drones with infra-red cameras to identify koalas living in trees and to note trees that regularly housed koalas.  He mentions that loss of habitat and car strikes were the two main reasons for koala deaths but he did not speak at all about the potential effects of the project and increased traffic on koala survival. 

Shorebirds

Penn Loyd is a technical expert from South Africa, who has conducted studies on shorebirds in various parts of Australia since he moved here 11 years ago.  He correctly identified the 40 hectares that Walker intend to dredge though he didn’t use the word “dredge.”  He also discussed a larger 607 ha area of southern Moreton Bay which is also used by shorebirds to forage. He didn’t mention migratory routes or the impact of dredging but he did minimise the number of birds using the Toondah wetlands with references to numbers of each species in single digits. He concluded by stating that the project needs to adopt an “offset strategy” in order to have no net residual impact. 

Conclusion

I have been waiting for two years for the term “offset strategy” to raise its ugly head because this is a common strategy used by developers to circumvent environmental concerns in an area. 

The term was used in 2018 by the then spokesman for Walker Corporation, Peter Saba, in an article titled “Wetland clearing offset” in Redland City Bulletin (P5; 3/10/18).  The term “offset” was also used by Josh Frydenberg in December 2018 when he dismissed the findings of his own environment department and referred the Walker Toondah Proposal to an EIS under the guidance of Andrew Laming. 

Laming has since escorted the new Environment Minister, Sussan Ley, to view the Toondah area under consideration. “Walker Corporation communications manager Dolan Hayes said Walker welcomed Ms Ley’s visit, but Redlands 2030 spokesman Chris Walker said he was surprised Ms Ley did not take the chance to meet with community groups concerned about the building of apartments on Ramsar wetlands.” (RedlandCity Bulletin: 5/2/2020).

It is quite obvious that Andrew Laming intended to only introduce the new Federal Environment Minister to one side of the argument. She is the person who has to decide on the impending EIS, which after two years is still in mothballs. 

I will not be attending any of these on line sessions because the strategy has already been decided and I think anyone attending only serves to give credence to the Walker program, much like names on an attendance list.  

Dr Dennis Tafe
Retired marine biologist
Victoria Point

---

R2030 Editor

The contributions by Dr Tafe to the upcoming Toondah PDA: Online Information Sessions are appreciated. His frank assessment might not be appreciated by all but his views will contribute to a healthy debate about some of the issues needing to be addressed by the Environmental Impact Assessment required by the Commonwealth’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC). The failures of the EPBC is now acknowledged by the Commonwealth and it would be interesting the hear the views of these experts under the acknowledged failure of the Act to deliver acceptable outcomes.

More broadly, even before the EPBC was invoked the PDA planning (ie the Development Scheme) failed to consider:

1. community values documented in the Redlands 2030 Community Plan
2. community attitude surveys showing 85% of people are opposed to the PDA development
3. international conventions and agreements (including the Ramsar convention, Wader Bird and Flyway agreements
4. the health of the Toondah koala colony (that sits astride of the access roads from the Cleveland CBD and the 3600 residential apartments of the PDA.
5. the PDA development scheme was presented to the community (for comment) as land based development

An obvious question of the consultant experts is whether they considered the broader policy and planning context and if they considered (and advised) on whether the development should or should not proceed?

However, in the context of the sessions being offered in the coming week or so the sessions cited by Dr Tafe are found here:

Fisheries by Daryl McPhee

Koalas by Adrian Caneris

Shorebirds by Penn Llyod

---

More Letters To Redlands2030

Toondah and the virus of coastal development

Jack Mundey, Planet of the Humans and Toondah

Moreton Bay science, ABC cuts, home builder grants and Lang Park in letters

Redlands2030 – 30 July 2020